Improvement in car-trucks



P. LAMB.

. Car Truck. v v

No. 36,657 Patented Oct. 14, 1862.

' Witnesses:

. W V Inventor,

til

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PETER LAMB, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

IMPROVEM ENT IN CAR-TRUCKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 36,657, dated October14, 15132.

.To all whom it may concern/:

Be it known that I, PETER LAMB, of Cinfcinnati, in the county ofHamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Gar-Trucks; and I do hereby declare that the followingis a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, inwhich Figure 1 is a side view of my invention. Fig. 2 is a front view ofa portion of the same; Fig. 3, a detached longitudinal section of one ofthe bearings of an axle; Fig. 4, a transverse section of the same, takenin the line 00 m. Fig. 5 is a front or face view of the means employedfor suspending the shoe-bar to the truck. Fig. 6 is a side view of thesame; Fig. 7, a section of the same, taken in the line a m, Fig. 5.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severalfigures.

This invention consists in anovel construction of the car-truck, wherebytwo springs are made to answer for the truck instead of four hithertoused.

The invention also consists in a novel way of suspending the shoe-barsto the truck, whereby the former may be readily attached to and detachedfrom the latter.

The object of the invention is to economize in the application of steelsprings to car-trucks, and at the same time obtain a truck that willhave greater elasticity than the ordinary ones and be capable of runningeasier or smoother over the track, and the shoe-bars at the same time beallowed to yield readily to the action of the brake mechanism.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and constructmyinvention, I will proceed to describe it.

A represents what may be termed the upper part of the truck-frame. Thispart A. is of rectangular form, and to each of its side bars, a a, thereare attached two pendants, I) b, which are of metal, and have each aneye, 0, at their lower ends, through which rods 11 pass horizontally,said rods having screws cut on them to receive nuts 6.

To the inner end of each red (I there is conneeted a link, B, and thelinks at each side of the truck are connected to the ends of a metalbar, 0, to which a spring, D, is secured. This spring D is composed of aseries of steel plates or leaves, f, placed one underneath the other,

the plates or leaves gradually decreasing in length from the upper tothe lower part of the spring, as shown clearly in Fig. 1. The ends ofthe upper and longer plate or leaf f are connected to thebar O by clips9 g, and the spring D, and also the bar 0, are firmly secured at theircenters by a clamp, E, to a bar, F, the ends of which have the bearingsh h of the axles GG attached to them. There is a spring D at each sideof the truck, both being constructed and arranged precisely alike, andthe two bars F F are connected by cross-bars G, any proper number of thelatter being used and arranged in any proper way. The bars F F andcross-bars G form what may be termed the lower part of the truck-frame,and the only connection between the upper and lower parts of the truckis that formed through the medium of the clamps E,by which the springs Dare attached to the bars F. The springs D extend the whole length of thebars F F, and the tension of the former may be regulated by turning thenuts 6 of the bars 0. Thus by this arrangement it will be seen that twosprings are only required for each truck, and owing to the length of thelatter and the mannor in which they are applied between the two parts ofthe truck, a great degree of elasticity.

is obtained, and some parts hitherto usedsuch as the standards, forinstance-dispensed with.

H represents the shoe-bars, which may be operated by the usual or anyproper brake mechanism. These shoe-bars are connected to the cross-barsii of the part A of the truck by means of links I, the ends of which arefitted in sockets J, attached to the shoe-bars H and cross-bars 1'.These sockets J are construeted of metal plates j, each having a recess,k, in it to receive the end of the link. In these recesses 7c slides Zare fitted, one in each, the end of the slide which is in contact withthe end of the link being of concave form or provided with a half-roundgroove, so as to fit snugly on the end of the link, and the bottom ofthe recess 70 of each socket is also of halfround form to receive theend of the link. (See Figs. 6 and 7.) The slides Zare retained in thesockets J by nuts on on one of the bolts a of the sockets. By thisarrangement it will be seen that all that is required in order to remove the links I is to loosen the nuts in and take out the slides Z, andthe links may be read which are connected at their ends by links B ilysecured in position in the sockets by replacing the slides and securingthem in the sockets by screwing up the nuts m. lating the tension of thesprings, as set forth. Having thus described my invention, what I 3.Securing the links I to the shoe-bars H JcFlaim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters and crossbars i by means of the sockets J,

atent, is

1. Constructing the car-truck of two parts as herein described.connected together by springs D D arranged substantially as hereindescribed.

2. Attaching the springs D D to bars 0,

to rods d, which pass through pendants b and have nuts 6 on them, forthe purpose of regu- 4 PETER LAMB. Witnesses:

JAMES LAIRD, M. W. WRIGHT.

provided with recesses 7r and slides Z, arranged

